Finance - Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

FHA, FHFA Announce Higher Conforming Loan Limits in ’24

In line with rising home prices, federally-backed loans will adjust for borrowers in the new year.Conforming loan limits are rising in the new year to keep up with escalating home prices, both the Federal Housing Administration and Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Tuesday.The new conforming loan limit set by the FHFA for 2024 is $766,550 (a hike of $40,350 compared to 2023’s baseline amount of $726,200). FHFA is the regulator of Fannie

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Home Prices Kept Rising even as Mortgage Rates Surged, S&P Case-Shiller Says

Higher mortgage rates appear to be doing very little to cool home prices.Nationally, prices were 3.9% higher in September compared with the same month a year earlier, up from a 2.5% annual gain in August, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index. This occurred as the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage climbed toward 8%.Of the 20 metropolitan markets highlighted in the report, Detroit saw the biggest annual increase

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Mortgage Rates Hit Lowest Level in 2 Months

Requests for purchase loans were up 4% last week compared to the week before, but down 20% from the same time a year ago, Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly survey of lenders finds Applications for purchase mortgages surged last week as mortgage rates hit their lowest levels in two months, with rates continuing to trend down this week as bond market investors digest data that shows inflation cooling.Requests for purchase loans were up by a sea

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Mortgage Application Rejection Rates Decline in 2023

Consumer credit preferences shift as households anticipate reduced demand for credit cards, mortgages, and auto loans in the coming year.The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Center for Microeconomic Data revealed Monday that rejection rates for new mortgage applications declined over the past four months. That comes amidst an increase in mortgage credit availability last month.The Survey of Consumer Expectations found that there was a

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More Relief in Mortgage Rates this Week

For the third consecutive week, mortgage rates fell, possibly a sign they’ve now moved past their recent peak. Find out where rates could be heading.Mortgage rates dropped again this week after reaching 20-year highs recently, and economists predict they are likely to continue to decline through the spring homebuying season. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.44% this week, backing further away from its near-8% high, Freddie Mac reports

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Federal Agency’s Plan to Help Home Buyers

‘We’re just looking at every opportunity we have to turn the dial as much as we can to help support homeowners in this difficult market,’ FHA official says Housing affordability hit a 39-year low this year, and the federal government says it’s determined to do something about that.Rising mortgage rates and home prices have made it a lot more expensive to buy a home.For a typical household, buying a median-priced home entails spending near

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Buyers React to Largest Mortgage Rate Dip in a Year

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped a quarter of a percentage point this week, as home buyers prove their rate sensitivity.Home buyers rushed to lock in this week’s lower mortgage rates, with applications for home loans seeing their first increase in a month as the average for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dipped to 7.5%, according to Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Bankers Association. Purchase applications rose 3% for the week, although th

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Home Prices are still Rising in more than 80% of U.S. Markets

While that’s unwelcome news for buyers, “homeowners have accumulated sizable wealth,” says NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.Home prices continue to rise in most areas of the country as more home buyers face affordability challenges. The median price nationwide for an existing single-family home in the third quarter was $406,900, which is 2.2% higher than a year prior, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. More than 80% of met

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States where Closing Costs are Highest, Lowest

Help your clients plan ahead so they aren’t blindsided by the fees they’ll pay at the closing table.Home buyers often focus on saving for a down payment, forgetting that they must budget for closing costs, too. And those fees can add up: The average closing costs in the U.S. are $4,243, according to a new study from Assurance IQ(link is external), an insurance provider. On average, home buyers nationwide should plan to budget 1.87% of th

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Adjustable-Rate Mortgage Demand Jumps Nearly 10% as Buyers Struggle to Afford Housing Market

As mortgage rates hover near the highest level in more than two decades, homebuyers are turning to riskier mortgage products to help them get into a home.Last week, the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) decreased to 7.86% from 7.90%, with points falling to 0.73 from 0.77 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment, according to the Mortgage Banker

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